Faith and folly: The Great Banquet

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 2, 2014

While it has been several weeks since the Oscars aired on television, something that happened on that Sunday continues to bother me. So I am going to get it off my chest.

It started with church that morning. Our pastor was doing a sermon on The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24). As a refresher, Jesus tells of a master who was preparing a great banquet but when it came time for invited people to attend, they all made insulting excuses about why they would no longer be coming. So the master told his servant to go out into the streets and alleys of the town and bring the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. And when the master was told there still was room, he had the servant go beyond those borders to the roads and country lanes “so that my house will be full.”

What struck me was the contrast between the people who ended up attending the Great Banquet — definitely the least of these of the world — and those who attended the Oscars — definitely the elite upper crust of the entertainment world. These entertainers spend more on their clothing and jewelry for this one big night than many people make in a year — or two, or three, or more. Gift bags containing all sorts of goodies were given to all the Oscar nominees, with a total value of more than $80,000, further demonstrating the culture of excess that exists at these annual award ceremonies.

And, yet, as a society we have a tendency to worship this culture. I’m no better. I enjoyed the Oscars, particularly Host Ellen DeGeneres and her many wacky antics. But I also could not stop thinking about the people who were not invited to this Great Oscars Banquet. While the party was taking place inside, the desperate people Jesus would have invited to the banquet remained outside, hoping for an act of kindness that would provide them food and warmth, if only for a night.